JPS61129966A - Optical information recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To indicate time to exchange light source of optical information by metering the light emission time of the optical information light source when the light emission time attains a level exceeding the preset fixed level by notifying the life of the light source is up. CONSTITUTION:The signal fv to be recorded in modulated in the modulator 1 and inputted in the laser 2 which emits light. Simultaneously the counter 3 meters the laser 2 output signal from the modulator 1 and adds the laser 2 light emission time from 0 upward to the memory 4. The comparator 5 compares the contents of memory 4 with the preset value and when the light emission time of the laser 2 entered in the memory 4 becomes larger, signal is outputted to the controller 6. The controller 6 upon receipt of the signal outputs a signal notifying that the life of the laser 2 is up and lights the LED7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is applicable to facsimile receiving devices, word processors,
The present invention relates to an optical information recording device used in an output device of a computer or other information recording device.

(Prior Art) FIG. 3 shows a layout diagram of the main processes around the photosensitive drum of a laser beam printer as an example of the above-mentioned optical information recording device. 101 is an image carrier, and an electrophotographic photosensitive layer 102
104 is a primary charger, 105 is a laser beam, 106 is a developer consisting of a doctor grade 107, a magnet roller 108, and a sleeve 109, T is a developing toner, 110 is a pre-exposure lamp,
111 is a transfer paper guide, 112 is a transfer charger, 1]
3 hagomu grade 114. This cleaner consists of a magnet roller 115, a screw 116, a housing 117, and the like.

The laser beam 105 is emitted from the semiconductor laser 2 that is driven in accordance with the recorded information signal. That is, the laser beam 105 is modulated in accordance with the recorded information signal. This laser beam 105 is deflected and swept by the rotating polygon 7tts, and scans the photosensitive drum 101. 1
A lens 19 forms a spot image of the laser beam 105 on the photosensitive drum 101. The semiconductor laser 2 is replaceably attached to a support member 121 with a screw 120.

First, the photosensitive drum 1 is uniformly charged by the negative charger 104. The drum 101 is exposed to a laser beam 105 modulated in accordance with the image signal, and a seismic image appears on the drum 101.
formed on top. Subsequently, the photosensitive drum 101 is transferred to the developing device 1.
The M image is visualized through the development step of 06. After that, the transfer paper introduced by the transfer paper guide 111 (
(omitted in this figure)), the developed image is transferred by a transfer charger 112.

The transferred toner image is fixed on a transfer paper by a fixing device (not shown) and is discharged outside the machine to obtain a notebook copy.

On the other hand, the untransferred developed toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 101 is removed from the drum 10 by a rubber blade 114.
The toner toner is removed from one surface, adsorbed by a magnet roller 115, and further stored in a toner collection box (not shown) forming a part of a housing 117 by a screw 116. The photosensitive drum lot whose static electricity has been removed in this way is sent to the first Teiden process, which is the first step, and is used repeatedly.

In the process of irradiating the laser beam 105, the laser beam 105 is applied to a portion of the photosensitive drum 101 corresponding to the portion to which toner is attached and visualized in the developing process.
An image scanning method is adopted in which the laser beam 105 is not irradiated on the background other than the tocho and akimaki areas.

In other words, toner is attached to the bright area of the photosensitive drum 101 that is illuminated by the laser beam 105, and toner is not substantially attached to the dark area of the photosensitive drum 101 that is not exposed to the laser beam 105. Reversal development method is not used. Compared to the background scanning method in which the laser beam 105 is irradiated to the background and the laser beam 105 is not irradiated only to the area corresponding to the visible image, this method does not leave scan marks on the background image and has improved reproducibility of the visible image. That's why it's excellent.

The toner T in the developing device 106 is caused by mutual friction, the sleeve 1
09, doctor grade 107, etc., it is charged to the same polarity as the charging polarity of the primary charger 104. The charged toner T is placed on the sleeve 109 to a uniform thickness by the doctor grade 107. The sleeve 109 rotates, and at the closest portion between the photosensitive drum 101 and the sleeve 109, an electric field between the potential of the developing bias voltage applied to the sleeve 109 and the electrostatic latent image potential causes the toner to become latent for development. It is attracted to the image area, and the portion corresponding to the bright area potential of the latent image is developed.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in the case of such conventional examples, when the laser reaches the end of its lifespan, the laser is no longer output and white spots appear on the image, or the laser beam usually has a sharp peak in the center. As the intensity distribution of the image begins to have multiple peaks and the intensity becomes weaker, the detection position of the laser beam, which determines the timing for starting image output of the laser beam in the scanning direction, changes, causing the head of the image in the scanning direction to change. The output cannot be synchronized, causing problems such as image fluctuations.

In order to prevent such problems, a method has been proposed in which the lifespan of lasers, LEDs, etc. is detected by integrating the number of dots corresponding to the image area (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-22436).
3). The lifespan of lasers, etc. is determined by the total viewing time, but in this case, it is assumed that the light emitting time per dot is the same, so a predetermined dot corresponding to the total viewing time that will reach the lifetime is determined in advance. The number is set and the lifespan is detected based on the number of dots.

However, the light emitting time per dot tends to vary slightly depending on the device, and for example, as shown in Figure 4, due to variations in the resistance and capacitor values in the electric circuits of device A and device B, even the same one dot can be The lengths in the scanning direction (X direction in the figure) are different. Therefore, if the number of dots is integrated, the total viewing time of a light source such as a V-laser cannot be accurately measured, resulting in an error in the measurement of laser life.

A printer using a light emitting element such as a laser beam can perform multi-level printing by changing the density of the light emitting time, as shown in FIG. 5, for example. In the figure, (a) shows a normal one-dot signal, and (b) shows three states when it is ternarized.

When multileveling is performed in this way, there is a problem that the light emitting time per dot changes, so that the lifespan cannot be detected just by integrating the number of dots.

The present invention has been carefully designed to solve the problems of the prior art, and its purpose is to more accurately detect the lifespan of an optical information light source and eliminate memory, ghost, etc. caused by the lifespan of the light source. The object of the present invention is to prevent image defects in advance and always output a proper image, and to enable prompt service operations by indicating to the operator when it is time to replace the optical information light source.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, in order to achieve the above object, the optical information recording device of the present invention includes: a measurement storage means for measuring and storing the light emission time of an optical information light source; The light emitting time of the optical information light source stored in the means is compared with a preset predetermined level, and when the light emitting time of the optical information light source stored in the measurement storage means exceeds the predetermined level, the light emitting time of the optical information light source is and comparison means for issuing a signal indicating that the life of the device has come to an end.

(Example) The present invention will be explained below based on illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows the main parts of an optical information recording device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and in this figure, the same members as those in the electrophotographic device of FIG. 3 described above are given the same reference numerals. It is.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an image signal input from a computer (not shown), etc., and recorded signals (f
v) Modulate the t laser input terminal and output the recorded signal (tv
) is a modulator that turns the laser on and off in response to the

As described above, a multilevel signal can be used as the recorded signal (f7). That is, the light emission time corresponding to one dot of the image is increased for high density portions of the image, and the light emission time corresponding to each pixel of one dot is shortened for the intermediate density portions of the image. A laser 2 is connected to the modulator 1 and serves as an optical information light source that emits light in accordance with the modulated signal, and is used in the same manner as the electrophotographic apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is a counter connected to the modulator l and measuring the output time from the modulator l to the laser 2, that is, the light emission time of the laser 2. A clock pulse generator 3' such as a crystal oscillator is connected to the counter 3, and is configured to measure the number of clock pulses received during the duration of the emission signal of the laser 2. Furthermore, a memory 4 is connected to the counter 3 and sequentially adds and stores the output from the counter 3, and the memory 4 is connected to a comparator 5 as comparison means. This counter 3, clock pulse generation means 3
' and the memory 4 constitute a measurement storage means 4'. The comparator 5 is connected to the controller 6, and the memory 4 has a predetermined level set in advance by the controller 6 and set corresponding to the average life of the next laser.
Compare the emission time of the laser 2 stored in the memory 4 with the emission time of the laser 2 stored in the memory 4, and if the emission time of the laser 2 stored in the memory 4 is long, input a signal to the controller 6 and receive a signal from the controller 6 indicating that the laser has reached the end of its life. It is designed to output a signal (Su)i to notify the user. This signal (Su) causes the display means 7, such as a light emitting diode, to emit light, making it possible to visually confirm that the life has come to an end. In this embodiment, a light emission signal is used, but a sound signal such as voice may also be used. In addition, the controller 6 and the memory 4 are connected, and by pressing the reset button 8, etc., a reset signal (R8T) is input from the controller 6 to the memory 4, and is stored in the memory 4 to return the light emitting time to 0. ing. Furthermore, the controller 6 is also connected to the counter 3, and controls the amount added from the counter 3 to the memory 4 to a constant value.

The other configurations are approximately the same as those in FIG.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be explained.

First, the recorded signal (it) is modulated by the modulator l and input to the laser 2. The laser 2 detects the recorded signal (TV
) emits light (or attenuates or quenches light) in response to At the same time, a counter 3 measures the output signal of the laser 2 from the modulator 1 and adds it to the memory 6 starting from the light emission time ko of the laser 2. The comparator 5 compares the contents of the memory 6 with a predetermined value, and outputs a signal to the controller 4 if the emission time of the laser 2 stored in the memory 6 is longer. Upon receiving this signal, the controller 4 sends a signal (S
u) is output to light up the light emitting diode 7, etc., and notify the user or service personnel that it is time to replace the laser 2. After replacing the laser 2, the service person presses the reset button 8 etc. to reset the controller 4.
The reset signal (R8T) is output while the memory 6 is set to 0.
will be returned to.

A signal (Su
) are also deleted.

The life of the friend laser 2 mentioned above has an approximately normal distribution as shown in Figure 2, so from its average life m, it is 2σ to 3σ.
(σ is the standard deviation) If the signal (Su) notifying the end of laser 2's lifespan is sent out at an early stage, the probability of failure due to the lifespan of laser 2 will be 4.6X-0.3%.
is extremely low, increasing reliability.

Alternatively, the laser 2 and the memory 6 may be fixed to the same support 122 to form the same unit, and the memory 6 may be replaced at the same time as the laser 2.

In this way, the serviceman only needs to replace the laser 2, and there is no need to reset the memory 6. Therefore, when the service engineer replaces the laser 2, the memory 6
There is no longer any possibility that a signal (Su) indicating that the life of the laser 2 has come to an end earlier than the life of the laser 2 due to forgetting to reset the laser 2 will be generated. Furthermore, it is possible to immediately determine whether the laser that has been used by laser 2 is a new laser by looking at its memory contents.

The above example shows the case where a laser is used as a light source, but
A large number of small light emitting diodes (LEDs) are arranged in a direction intersecting the direction of photoreceptor movement, and each LED is
The present invention can also be applied to detecting the lifespan of an LED array in a device using an LED array that is driven to blink. In addition to electrophotographic photoreceptors, silver salt photoreceptors can also be used as photoreceptors.
However, optical-magnetic recording media can also be used.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention has the above-described configuration and operation, and a signal indicating that the life of the optical information light source has come to an end by measuring the light emission time of the optical information light source before the end of the life of the optical information light source. Since the output is reliable, by replacing the optical information light source with a new one according to the signal, problems caused by the lifespan of the optical information light source can be prevented, and the user's work can be prevented from being delayed until the end of the optical information light source's lifespan. This has the effect of being done. Furthermore, by notifying the service engineer of the time to replace the optical information light source, the time required for the service engineer to discover a defect in the optical information light source can be saved, and the replacement optical information light source can be prepared in advance. This has the effect that a planned service system can be adopted and prompt service activities can be carried out.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical information recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the distribution of V-zer lifespan, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic diagram of a conventional optical information recording device, Figure 4 is a diagram showing the length of one laser dot in the V-laser scanning direction, and Figure 5 is a diagram showing the length of one laser dot in the laser scanning direction. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing signals for dots. Explanation of symbols 1... Modulator 2... Laser (optical information light source) 3... Counter 3'... Clock pulse generator 4... Memory 4'... Measurement storage means 5...
・Comparator (ratio 9 means) 6... Controller patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 A ○ Figure 5 (a no "] - (b) ■

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) In an optical information recording device that exposes a recording medium with light modulated in accordance with a recorded signal, a measurement storage means for measuring and storing the light emission time of an optical information light source; The light emission time of the optical information light source is compared with a predetermined level set in advance, and when the light emission time of the optical information light source stored in the measurement storage means exceeds the preset predetermined level, the light emission time of the optical information light source is compared with a preset predetermined level. and comparison means for issuing a signal indicating that the life of the optical information recording device has come to an end. (2) The optical information recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a reset means for returning the time stored in the measurement storage means to zero after the optical information light source is replaced. (3) The measurement storage means has a counter that measures the light emission time of the optical information light source, and a memory that stores the output of the counter while adding it up, and the optical information light source and the memory are simultaneously integrated into the same unit. The optical information recording device according to claim 1, wherein the optical information recording device is replaceable. (4) The optical information recording device according to claim 1, wherein the signal output from the comparing means is a visible display signal. (5) The level preset corresponding to the life of the optical information light source is between m-3σ and m-2σ with respect to the average life m of the optical information light source and its standard deviation σ. An optical information recording device according to claim 1.